Annual Report

July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010

Land Protected July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010

Forest Lands

Schornbush Forest: 86 acres

Located on the toe slopes of the Van Zandt Dike, this high quality forest land provides wildlife habitat and protects wetlands and streams that contribute to the lower South Fork of the Nooksack River. Surrounded by larger forested parcels and nearby already protected land, the Schornbush Forest has the potential to serve as a catalyst for further conservation of forestland. The project aligns with WLTs Salmon Eagle Elk plan and the open space and sensitive areas program. The property is mixed with high quality forest dominated by western red cedar and big leaf maple in some areas and red alder and black cottonwood in others. Small tributary streams and wetlands on the property flow to the west through Williams Lake and then to the South Fork . The forest lies within a Nature Conservancy eco-regional priority area, the aptly named “Van Zandt Ridge.” Wolverines have been seen on the property and adjacent public lands are said to have nesting habitat for both marbled murrelet and peregrine falcon. The property is dominated by merchantable western red cedar, hemlock, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and hardwoods mixed throughout extensive wetlands.

Wickersham Forest: 453 acres

The Wickersham Forest, a 453 acre property, consisting of several parcels of forestland above the Samish River just east of Wickersham. This project, purchased in a sealed bid auction, continues to build on prior successes in the Samish complex. It provides perpetual protection to significant freshwater wetlands and associated upland forests in the basin which in turn contributes to the protection of water quality and habitat conditions in Samish Bay.

The project, part of a larger coordinated long term effort to implement protection and enhancement of critical habitat linkages identified in the Cascades-to-Chuckanuts Conservation Plan (2004), a joint conservation plan between Skagit Land Trust, the North Cascades Corridor Project, and WLT. The acquisition of this property protects fresh water wetland and riparian habitats along the Samish River, riparian and salmon spawning habitat in Ennis Creek, and forestland habitat for wildlife including beaver, bear, deer, elk, bobcats and coyote.

Whatcom Land Trust owns and manages over 1,500 acres of forest land in Whatcom County. We have developed property management plans for most of our properties that include varying levels of forest management activities. Our management plans include tree planting along riparian areas to increase the conifer component, fire prevention, pre-commercial tree thinning and selective timber harvest to accelerate forest stands towards old-growth conditions. Commercial thinning is projected to begin over the next 10-20 years with selective harvest to continue to promote species and structural diversity and complexity. The Wickersham Forest holds a great deal of potential for the land trust, and is thriving, living, instrument to channel our commitment to perpetual stewardship of this good earth.

Agricultural Preservation

The Land Trust continues to work with Whatcom County and its Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program. The program is intended to preserve and protect valuable agricultural lands and is managed by the County’s Planning & Development Services department.

Eldridge: 30.5 acres

The Eldridge property, located near the western edge of Sumas Mountain becomes the twelfth farm that Whatcom County has enrolled in the Agricultural Purchase of Development Rights program. A portion of the property has soils identified as agriculturally important in Whatcom County’s Agricultural Protection Overlay. An organic dairy operation, the farmstead, is primarily vegetated with pasture grasses, and, in the wettest area, native spirea. The northeastern corner of the property is within a zone identified within the Whatcom Critical Areas Ordinance as a Wildlife Habitat Conservation Area for State Priority Species cavity-nesting ducks. The Eldridge family has reinvested in the future of the farm and is actively engaged in a productive dairy operation.

The purpose of this easement, and all easements secured by the County’s AgPDR program, is to: protect the present and future ability to use the property for agricultural purposes; preserve the soil as a valuable resource and prevent activities that will impair the ability to use the soil to produce food and fiber; and enable the property to remain in agricultural use by preserving and protecting in perpetuity its agricultural values, character, use and utility.

Watershed Protection

Geneva Preserve: 45.4 acres

The City of Bellingham continues to invest in the permanent preservation of the Lake Whatcom watershed. The primary purpose of the conservation easement placed upon the Geneva Preserve is to protect the water quality of Lake Whatcom by preserving, and where needed, restoring natural ecological functions that act to maintain high water quality and reduce or eliminate sources of water quality degradation. The secondary purposes include the protection and enhancement of wildlife habitat, preservation of open space, and providing opportunities for passive recreation.

Laying above the Geneva neighborhood, and adjacent to the Geneva Pond trail loop in the Stimpson Reserve, the majority of the wooded parcel is comprised of mature big-leaf maple, red alder, black cottonwood, and paper birch. The understory is dominated by western sword fern, Vine maple, salmon berry, red huckleberry, and Indian plum. The preserve is situated on a series of sandstone ridges that create a dramatic variation in topography.

Samish River Preserve

Two new properties were added to the growing complex of Samish River protected wetlands in the last year.

Alpine Meadows: 66 acres

Alpine Meadows was purchased with grant funds through the US Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) Small Grants Program. These grant funds were supplemented with donations made through WLT’s Great Outdoors Auction “Fund-an-Acre.” The largest charitable component was brothers Kenneth and Lewis Stremler decision to generously sell the land trust the Alpine Meadows property at a deep discount, thus freeing up conservation dollars to be invested in restoration of the wetlands.

NAWCA Grants are intended to preserve and protect bird and waterfowl habitat and the Alpine Meadows parcel is a perfect venue to carry out those protective activities. The Stremlers had intended to use the land as a Christmas tree farm but the ground proved to be too wet use in that manner. By engaging in restoration of these wetland Great blue herons, wood ducks, mallards, Canada goose, ring neck ducks, red tailed hawks, owls, and multiple wetland dependent birds are now found in the preserve.

Mulka: 18 acres

The Mulka property is a recent addition to the Samish River Preserve. Purchased with grant funds through the US Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetland Conservation Act Small Grants Program, the parcel provides one more piece to the rich quilt of protected properties in the neighborhood. The grant program is intended to benefit both resident and migratory neo-tropical birds and waterfowl and a host of other wildlife. Red breasted sapsuckers, red-winged blackbird, mash wren, thrush and flycatchers include some of the many birds that utilize the habitat on the property.

One of the peripheral benefits of seeking protection for one type of wildlife is the spinoff benefit provided to other species that reside in the habitat. The Samish River Preserve provides multiple benefits for numerous species that live in the ecosystem. Coho salmon, a state species of concern rears in the Samish River and within tributary streams and wetlands throughout upper Samish. Winter steelhead, listed as Federally Threatened, spawns in nearby Ennis Creek. Fall Chum, both resident and sea run cutthroat trout, and Lamprey, also a species of concern, live in the creeks of the preserve.

Coastal Wetlands

Whatcom Land Trust is partnering with the Lummi Nation, holding and maintaining perpetual conservation easements over properties acquired with funding from the Washington State Department of Ecology through the US Fish & Wildlife Service Coastal Wetlands Program. The program is focused on the acquisition and restoration of 246 acres of estuarine salmon habitat along Smuggler’s Slough, a tributary of the Nooksack River, Bellingham Bay, and Lummi Bay.

California Creek-Timberline: 41 acres

This conservation acquisition falls squarely within WLTs Open Space and Sensitive Areas program criteria and the project’s location along California Creek contributes to ongoing efforts to protect sensitive wetlands and Drayton Harbor. The project will protect critical salmon habitat, with 1,800 feet riparian forest frontage on California Creek, and a tributary connected to a significant open water wetland complex to the west. Waterfowl and wetland dependent birds use the wetlands for wintering and nesting territory. Protection of wetlands will help to buffer storm water, control flooding, and protect groundwater recharge. Whatcom County and Department of Ecology plans point out the significance of this reach of California Creek for wetland restoration and protection. The site is adjacent to a 40 acre protected Washington Department of Transportation wetland mitigation site. Protection of this property will enhance water quality protection for Drayton Harbor, an important bird area and shell fish area. By managing the young forest to create a mature structurally diverse climax forest, we will be able to restore the riparian and forested wetland habitat to provide benefits to salmon and multiple other species of wildlife.

Smugglers Slough: 109 acres

The Smugglers Slough complex continues to grow with an additional 4 conservation easements added to the estuary restoration project. Whatcom Land Trust is a partner with the Lummi Nation in the Coastal Wetlands Program for the purposes of holding and maintaining perpetual conservation easements over properties acquired with funding from the Department of Ecology and United States Fish & Wildlife Service. Out migrating juvenile salmon smolts utilize Smuggler’s Slough for resting and acclimating to the salt water environment. Hawks, bald eagles, ducks, herons and waterfowl hunt, rest and forage on the properties. The Smugglers Slough terrain is flat, rising less than 10 feet above sea level, and isn’t necessarily inspirational when viewed casually. Its most remarkable feature might be the very deep, very poorly drained soil, primarily Tacoma silt loam, which lies beneath the surface. Yet so much potential lies within these flood plains and tidal flats, when the Lummi Nation completes the restoration of the estuary we will once again be witness to a thriving, vibrant, and vital landscape.